Southeast Asia

Citation:

Drummond, Lisa. 2006. “Gender in Post-Doi Moi Vietnam: Women, Desire, and Change.” Gender, Place & Culture 13 (3): 247–50.

Author: Lisa Drummond

Abstract:

On the eve of doi moi's twentieth anniversary, this group of papers examines the impact of ‘economic renovation’ on the lives of Vietnam's women. Economically, the transformation is unarguable. Socially, the impacts have been as deep, but more uneven and possibly less predictable. These four papers examine different aspects of contemporary Vietnamese women's experience through the lens of desire: mothers confronting the age-old desire for sons under the government's small-family policy, young women's desire to explore sexuality in the strict moral environment of the countryside, piece-workers' desire for better conditions and better lives but unable to mobilize their proletarian class position in a socialist regime, and the desire of authors to evoke women's war-time roles to create a shared national remembrance of suffering, sacrifice, and loss. In their diverse ways, these papers offer unusual insights and rare glimpses into the lives of women in post-doi moi Vietnam.

Topics: Civil Society, Class, Economies, Gender, Women, Political Economies, Post-Conflict, Sexuality Regions: Asia, Southeast Asia Countries: Vietnam

Year: 2006

Citation:

Yea, Sallie. 2012. “‘Shades of Grey’: Spaces In and Beyond Trafficking for Thai Women Involved in Commercial Sexual Labour in Sydney and Singapore.” Gender, Place & Culture 19 (1): 42–60. doi:10.1080/0966369X.2011.617906.

Author: Sallie Yea

Abstract:

In this article I explore the migration trajectories of some Thai women trafficked internationally for commercial sexual exploitation, suggesting that many figuratively ‘cross the border’ between coerced and consensual existence in volatile migrant sex industries during the course of their migration experiences, thus complicating debates around the notion of choice in ‘sex’ trafficking. In exploring these women's transitions I seek to understand why women who had either never previously been sex workers or who were sex workers operating without duress, but who were then trafficked for commercial sexual exploitation remain in, or re-enter volatile forms of migrant sex work at a later point under voluntary arrangements. In answering this question I focus on the temporal and spatial aspects of individual women's experiences in migrant sex industries drawing in detail on the narratives of two Thai women trafficked to Sydney, Australia and Singapore. I make some suggestions about methodologies used in trafficking research that can assist in bringing to light some of these complex time–space dimensions of women's experiences through their shifting positions in commercial sexual labour. The article also reflects on the implications of these women's trajectories for the ‘prostitution debate’ as it relates to trafficking for commercial sexual exploitation by suggesting that many trafficked women occupy ambiguous or in-between positions in migrant sex industries, neither easily distinguishable by the label of victim of trafficking or migrant sex worker.

Keywords: sex trafficking, commercial sexual labour, methodologies, migration trajectories, Thailand

Topics: Displacement & Migration, Forced Migration, Gender, Women, Livelihoods, Sexual Livelihoods, Political Economies, Sexual Violence, Sexual Exploitation and Abuse, Sexual Slavery, Trafficking, Human Trafficking, Sex Trafficking Regions: Asia, Southeast Asia Countries: Thailand

Year: 2012

Citation:

Faxon, Hilary, Roisin Furlong, and May Sabe Phyu. 2015. “Reinvigorating Resilience: Violence against Women, Land Rights, and the Women’s Peace Movement in Myanmar.” Gender & Development 23 (3): 463–79.

Authors: Hilary Faxon, Roisin Furlong, May Sabe Phyu

Abstract:

In Myanmar, movements for gender justice strive to foster personal and collective security, vibrant livelihoods, and political engagement during a period of rapid and uncertain transition. This article draws from the experience of the Gender Equality Network (GEN), a coalition of over 100 organisations in Myanmar. It examines three cases in which GEN sought to document existing forms of resilience and expand these mechanisms through national-level advocacy. The first describes current attempts to publicise, and eventually eliminate, violence against women (VAW). VAW is a fundamental threat to personal safety, but also to the principle of societal accountability – that is, the extent to which society upholds the interests and rights of women and girls. The second focuses on women's (lack of) access to natural resources and economic decision-making, drawing on gender-focused input into the National Land Use Policy. Finally, we examine the impacts of conflict on women's resilience, and women's increasing participation in the peace process. In all three cases, effective mobilisation and networking not only increased female political voice, but also enabled creation of a more resilient democracy by modelling effective policy, research, advocacy, and communication strategies.

Keywords: Gender, violence against women, gender-based violence, land rights, peace, conflict, Myanmar, Burma, resilience

Topics: Gender, Women, Gender-Based Violence, Land Grabbing, Peace Processes, Rights, Women's Rights Regions: Asia, Southeast Asia Countries: Myanmar

Year: 2015

Citation:

Musikawong, Sudarat. 2011. “Gendered Casualties: Memoirs in Activism and the Problem of Representing Violence.” Meridians 11 (2): 174–204. doi:10.2979/meridians.11.2.174.

Author: Sudarat Musikawong

Abstract:

Topics: Gendered Power Relations, Masculinism, Nationalism, Violence Regions: Asia, Southeast Asia Countries: Thailand

Year: 2011

Citation:

Pittaway, Eileen, Linda Bartolomei, and Susan Rees. “Gendered Dimensions of the 2004 Tsunami and a Potential Social Work Response in Post-Disaster Situations.” International Social Work 50, no. 3 (May 1, 2007): 307–19. doi:10.1177/0020872807076042.

Authors: Eileen Pittaway, Linda Bartolomei, Susan Rees

Abstract:

Keywords: advocacy, disaster relief, Gender, tsunami, sexual violence

Topics: Displacement & Migration, Refugee/IDP Camps, Environment, Environmental Disasters, Gender, Women, Gender-Based Violence, Humanitarian Assistance, Sexual Violence Regions: Africa, Asia, Southeast Asia

Year: 2007

Citation:

Ezard, Nadine. 2014. “It’s Not Just the Alcohol: Gender, Alcohol Use, and Intimate Partner Violence in Mae La Refugee Camp, Thailand, 2009.” Substance Use & Misuse 49 (6): 684–93

Author: Nadine Ezard

Abstract:

Keywords: Intimate partner violence, refugee, displaced populations, alcohol, conflict, violence against women, Thailand-Burma border, substance use, qualitative research, Gender

Topics: Armed Conflict, Displacement & Migration, Refugees, Refugee/IDP Camps, Domestic Violence, Gender, Gendered Power Relations, Health, Violence Regions: Asia, Southeast Asia Countries: Thailand

Year: 2014

Citation:

Cagoco-Guiam, Rufa. 2013. Gender and Livelihoods among Internally Displaced Persons in Mindanao, Philippines. Washington, D.C.: The Brookings-London School of Economics Project on Internal Displacement

Author: Rufa Cagoco-Guiam

Annotation:

• What are the gender dimensions of the deprivations of livelihoods due to internal displacement?
• How can efforts to restore or access new livelihoods help advance gender equity and support internally displaced women as agents of positive change at different levels (from local to the national levels)?
• Are there particular livelihood strategies that advance the rights and well-being of internally displaced women, their families, and communities? In what ways?
• What are the potential contributions of innovative livelihood initiatives to peace building, the reconstruction process and the pursuit of durable solutions to displacement?

Topics: Displacement & Migration, IDPs, Gender, Women, Livelihoods, Post-Conflict, Post-Conflict Reconstruction Regions: Asia, Southeast Asia Countries: Philippines

Year: 2013

Citation:

Smyth, Ines. “Gender in Climate Change and Disaster Risk Reduction, Manila, October 2008.” Development in Practice 19, no. 6 (2009): 799–802.

Author: Ines Smyth

Abstract:

The Congress on Gender in Climate Change and Disaster Risk Reduction (held in Manila 19–22 October 2008) was the Third Global Congress of Women in Politics and Governance. Its purpose was to provide a forum for decision makers to formulate gender-responsive programmes related to climate change and disaster-risk reduction. More than 200 people participated, including parliamentarians, representatives of environmental and women's organisations, and donor agencies. Proceedings focused on the fact that climate change magnifies existing inequalities, and in particular gender inequality. The Congress issued the Manila Declaration for Global Action on Gender, Climate Change, and Disaster Risk Reduction.

Keywords: environment, gender and diversity, Governance and public policy, East Asia

Topics: DDR, Environment, Climate Change, Environmental Disasters, Gender, Gender Mainstreaming, Governance Regions: Asia, Southeast Asia Countries: Philippines

Year: 2009

Citation:

Hedström, Jenny. 2016. “We Did Not Realize about the Gender Issues. So, We Thought It Was a Good Idea: Gender Roles in Burmese Oppositional Struggles.” International Feminist Journal of Politics 18 (1): 61–79. doi:10.1080/14616742.2015.1005516.

Author: Jenny Hedström

Abstract:

This article explores the link between nationalism, as expressed by the Burman state and ethnic and student opposition movements, and the emergence of a multiethnic women's movement engaged in resistance activities. In focusing on women's involvement in oppositional nation-making projects, this article aims to broaden our understanding of gender and conflict by highlighting women's agency in war. Drawing on interviews carried out with founding members of the women's movement, non-state armed groups and others active in civil society, the article investigates how a gendered political consciousness arose out of dissatisfaction with women's secondary position in armed opposition groups, leading to women forming a movement, not in opposition to conflict per se but in opposition to the rejection of their militarism, in the process redefining notions of political involvement and agency. By invoking solidarity based on a gendered positioning, rather than on an ethnic identity, the women's movement resisted the dominant nation-making projects, and created a nationalism inclusive of multiethnic differences. Burmese women's multiple wartime roles thus serve to upset supposed dichotomies between militancy and peace and victim and combatant, in the process redefining the relationship between gender, nationalism and militancy.

Keywords: nationalism, Myanmar, Gender, ethnicity, conflict

Topics: Armed Conflict, Ethnic/Communal Wars, Civil Society, Ethnicity, Gender, Women, Gendered Power Relations, Gender Hierarchies, Military Forces & Armed Groups, Militarism, Non-State Armed Groups, Nationalism, Political Participation Regions: Asia, Southeast Asia Countries: Myanmar

Year: 2016